bystander
by Phangirling
Summary: au wherein the witches are badass and kyle is a confused, but that's okay because at least he gets to kiss zoe sometimes. - zoe/kyle.


Kyle reminds Zoe of the boys in drugstore magazines except he's much better. There isn't an emptiness to his smile, no blank stare that sees right through her or chases after the supermodel whose face is buried in his neck. He laughs so cheerfully and that accent is going to make her faint, may whatever entity keeping vigil over stupid little witches help her. It's when he slides an arm around her shoulders to draw them both from a group of rowdy partygoers that she feels her heartbeat stutter.

She likes him.

What a nightmare.

"Kyle," she sighs, and she must sound serious because his idle smile vanishes.

"What is it? Somethin' wrong?" He spreads warm breath all over her face, stares at her with those pretty eyes of his.

Well. It hasn't turned into a nightmare yet.

"I...,uh, could we move somewhere else? It's getting kind of loud here."

Zoe purposely loses track of him in the crowd they trudge through. Kyle finds her and asks if she's okay, hopefully you didn't get too knocked around because I'd hate to have to ban my fraternity brothers from ever drinking again if that happened to be the case.

She laughs but she's not sure if it's at him or because she's so screwed it's almost funny.

* * *

Her breathing kind of evens out by morning, but then Madison closes their drapes with a flick of her wrist and she chokes on a bout of tears as the night's events rage through her head. Madison scoffs.

"Come on, Zoe." her friend chides, "He was one of them. No doubt he would've taken his turn on me if he'd gotten the chance."

"No." She shakes her head. "I don't accept that."

"Look, I'm sorry that I might have killed your boy candy. There. Are we good now? Because you're going to have to move to a different room if we aren't. Negative energy is the exact opposite of what I need circulating in here right now."

"_'May have'_? Madison, you destroyed that bus, everybody on it was - "

"One or two of them made it out."

Zoe stares as Madison draws her knees to her chest.

"What?"

"Yeah. I heard it on the news downstairs. It's that thing people who get out of their beds before noon sometimes watch."

"It's only eight."

"Can you just go find out if your boy toy is alive so I can shower again in peace?"

Nobody had to tell her twice.

* * *

Zoe takes a battered hand in both of hers. Somehow, she manages to hold it together until he cracks an eyelid and mutters in a scratchy voice.

"Am I dead?" he asks.

Stray tears stick to her hair when she shakes her head.

"No, you didn't die." Her voice catches in the middle of her sentence and she cries a little more.

But Kyle just grins and lifts his head off the pillows.

"Sorry. I'm a little confused. Guess I just figured angels would look like you."

He tries to grab for her hands, but she tears them away and drops into the bedside chair. The tears and syllables flow in earnest as she tells him about everything from her bloodline to her stupid, freakish, "black widow status" to how much she really does like him, but she's really sorry because it's still not going to work out for obvious reasons and hopefully he won't feel compelled to tell anybody about this.

Kyle looks like he's sleeping by the time she's done, but then he cocks his head to the side and mutters, "Seriously?" Like, it's so strange and so ridiculous she doesn't even know how to react.

"I...huh?" she finally decides on.

"Are you serious about all that?"

"Yeah I am, I swear. I could even show you if you want before I go - "

"You don't have to do that."

Zoe nods, scrubs her eyes with her palms and stands to leave.

"Wait," Kyle says, lifting a shaky hand as if to stop her. It works. "I meant that you didn't have to leave."

Her brow furrows. "Kyle, I really shouldn't - "

" - serve your community by spending time with a poor guy confined to his bed for a good long while?"

She stops, teeth snagging her lower lip while she considers it.

His lopsided smile is really lovely even with a black eye to go with it.

"I guess I could stay for a while."

Kyle beams. "Tell me about your last Quidditch game."

* * *

As it happens, Kyle only has to stay in the hospital for a little over a week. Zoe figures that keeping her distance is a little pointless now that she's gone and told him everything there is to know about her part in the local supernatural happenings. Plus, he still likes being with her even though she's got that _problem_. Something about certain activities being difficult with a broken leg and that wasn't why he was so taken with her in the first place.

She kissed him right then and right on the lips.

* * *

They talk about him some more like she wanted. He talks about his most recent escapades and how he's grateful that he doesn't really remember the bus crash. His mom stops by one day. Zoe swears she can hear them arguing on her way out, but when she asks about it the next day he brushes her off.

The afternoon he's discharged, she stands with her arms on the wheelchair handles while he holds his crutches tight. It's silent until some fraternity brothers make a show of peeling into the parking lot.

"Am I going to see you again?" Kyle asks when he's steady on his crutches. He reaches out a hand to smooth some hair off of her face, fingertips brushing softly down her cheek.

She didn't want to say no.

Zoe ambles forward, grabs him by the jaw and promises that he'll see her again with a kiss.

* * *

a/n: my first time venturing into ahs fanfiction here. if you could leave a review that would be grand.


End file.
